PORT ANGELES — When the 15th annual North Olympic Discovery Marathon begins in Blyn a few hours after sunrise Sunday, two Port Angeles men will proudly dawn the race’s No. 1 and No. 2 bibs and head west along the Olympic Discovery Trail.
The number of competitors has increased, and the race course itself may have evolved over the years, but there have been two constants in all that time: stalwart runners Tom St. Amand and Tom Wahl.
They have completed every step of every North Olympic Discovery Marathon — more than 1.9 millon feet in total — since the marathon’s inception in June 2003.
Wahl even finished first in one marathon, although not by his choice.
Fellow runners and fans along the route are encouraged to lend their support to the marathon men as they travel the 26.2-mile distance to the finish line near City Pier in Port Angeles.
Wahl celebrating life
Running a marathon was always a life goal for Wahl, a physical education teacher in the Port Angeles School District, and one he first acheived while teaching in Europe in the 1990s.
“When I lived in Europe, a fellow teacher/coach invited me to join him in the Munich Marathon 22 years ago,” Wahl, 59, said.
“I went on to keep running marathons in various locations in Europe. We moved back here in 1999, and I did the Seattle Marathon until the North Olympic Discovery Marathon came along. NODM is perfect, beautiful and well-managed, and logistically very nice.”
Wahl’s first Discovery Marathon was run in memory of his mother-in-law and her fight and eventual death from cancer.
After surviving a 2015 health scare that required him to run the race a week early because of an upcoming prostate cancer surgery, the deeply religious Wahl now runs the marathon both as a memorial to and celebration of those who have fought and are fighting the disease.
“To those who are fighting cancer, in remission or anyone who is battling through tough times I want to encourage them with the verse I wear on the back of my marathon shirt, Philippians 4:13,” Wahl said.
“That verse [‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’] and others have helped me meet tough times in my life.
“[Marathon running] has become a celebration of life for me and I want to celebrate with all who have the courage and willingness to prepare to take on this wonderful challenge.”
His favorite marathon memories range from the simple: taking turns pushing a stroller containing the niece of Port Angeles native and ultra marathoner Rob DeCou to the emotionally stirring — being accompanied by close friends Buddy Bear and Steve Blakeman who biked alongside him as he ran the race early in 2015.
“I couldn’t have done it without them,” Wahl said at the time. “Doing it this way, there’s no support out there, so they carried all my water and took care of me the whole way.”
Testing himself
St. Amand, who was named after his father’s marathon-running best man, got the itch to test himself while sitting in the dentist’s chair as a patient of marathon founder Larry Little back when Little practiced dentistry in Port Townsend.
“I would hear stories of him and his late wife [Heidi] doing incredible things at the Hawaii Ironman,” St. Amand said. “I had just begun running 10-kilometer races in 2002 when he told me he was starting up the Discovery Marathon. I jumped right in, [and] with the coaching help from Marian Byse, I was on my way.”
His most memorable marathon dates back to 2006, the first time he completed his goal of running a sub four-hour marathon.
“I came close in 2004 but in 2005 I did quite a bit worse,” St. Amand said.
“I had friends from the YMCA who would hopscotch the course and cheer me on. That morning, Ron Rogers told me he had a dream that this was my year and gave me pace results along the course letting me know I was holding pace to make my mark. I ran a 3:52 that year, I have a picture taken at the finish with my hands in the air, and I am smiling off to someone in the crowd. It was Ron.”
Despite his triumphs on the trail, St. Amand doesn’t style himself as the example of marathon success.
“I am sometimes taken back when I am introduced at running events as some sort of ultra-gifted athlete,” he said. “I was exceptionally slow in school as a runner, and all I did was take a mediocre talent and stick with it year after year until I reached my very average goal of a sub-four finish.”
Admittedly, St. Amand knows that he’ll never qualify for marathon racing’s biggest stage, the Boston Marathon, and he’s fine with that realization.
“It’s not a gift. I cannot run through the point of exhaustion like the runners who finish an hour or more before me,” he said.
“I don’t contemplate that, I am out here thinking that I am so very fortunate to be doing what so many have never dared to try. At one time it was half of one percent of Americans have run a marathon. That’s the one-percent crowd I am honored to be affiliated with.”
Keeping memories
Wahl is so uplifted by the event he hopes to run in the NODM until his “last year of life.”
St. Amand has some health issues that are complicating his running
“I have back issues and a degenerative disease in my feet, so I don’t want running to compromise what I can do later in life,” he said.
But he can keep the memories from myriad final-stretch finishes along the marathon’s final stretch along the Port Angeles waterfront.
“It’s beautiful, cool and flat,” St. Amand said. “You can hear the commotion at the pier from a few miles out and it’s encouraging.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
North Olympic Discovery Marathon Port Angeles’ Tom Wahl, left, shakes the hand of a fellow runner after crossing the finish line of the North Olympic Discovery Marathon in 2016. Wahl has finished all 14 marathons and will run in the 15th annual event Sunday.
North Olympic Discovery Marathon Port Angeles’ Tom St. Amand nears the finish line of the North Olympic Discovery Marathon in 2015. St. Amand has finished all 14 marathons and will run in the 15th annual event Sunday.
